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Jerry Brown’s ed plan reflects realism toward school reform
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Gov.-elect Jerry Brown’s education plan is smart, pragmatic, and, in one respect, a little bit pregnant. Brown’s adviser and Stanford professor Mike Kirst suggested I reexamine the governor-elect’s plan, this with the assurance that the governor-elect means to do what he said. A close reread opens the eyes to possibilities for substantial reform that can be accomplished, or at least begun, in these tough budgetary times. Smart. Pragmatic. (My comments follow with page and paragraph references to Brown’s plan for those who want to follow along with the original.) In a world where “you campaign in poetry, but govern in prose,” Brown didn’t get the poetry part, but the prose is good. He and Kirst have moved well beyond the simplistic I’ll-be-an-education-governor, blow-it-all-up rhetoric. When was the last … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2010 elections, Commentary, Jerry Brown, Systemic Change
Bring in new faces and voices to Sacramento for real change
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Our electorate occasionally acts schizophrenic. Take the call for change. In the midst of one of our country’s longest running economic downturns, there’s a palpable anger against politicians and the political system. According to the rhetoric, they got us into this mess, and the answer is to boot them out. On Tuesday, this anger is likely to force a change of power in Congress – with Republicans taking over from the Democrats. Outside of California, the role of the Tea Party in this process has been the focus of massive attention from the press and the political system. Longtime elected officials in other states lost their jobs to challenges from political novices channeling the anger of their constituents. Yet, the “change” promoted by Tea Party and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary
Negotiate student achievement goals into teachers’ contracts
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Collective bargaining lends itself to lots of different conversations, but it’s hard to talk about what matters most: how spending money will or won’t make education better. An illustration: Jacob Adams, a Claremont Graduate University colleague, has edited a new book, Smart Money, which shows that effective school districts spend their money differently than those with lower student achievement gains. In the book, and in an Education Week commentary, he argues for a “simple, powerful principle,” linking collective bargaining and other forms of resource allocation to student achievement. The smart-money approach is to adopt cycles of continuous improvement — goal setting, instruction, assessment and analysis — to tailor resource allocation to classroom needs. But where, in a school system filled with large and small interests, including … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teachers
What culprit-seeking ‘Superman’ lacks: complexity
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Teachers union members last week leafleted outside the Oakland movie house where I saw Davis Guggenheim’s film Waiting for Superman. And no doubt there’ve been countless protests elsewhere. The film, “and its unprecedented hype (and) … misleading or factually incorrect claims,” said the leaflets, “risk leading us dangerously astray from real solutions to real problems.” No surprise about that. The movie makes teachers unions the prime culprits standing in the way of decent schools for nice (mostly minority) kids and portrays charter schools as their greatest hope. But conservatives like New York Times columnist Ross Douthat who read between the lines of Guggenheim’s film can easily come to a more radical conclusion: The only real answer is vouchers. The movie’s strongest complaint – the problems caused by rigid seniority-and-tenure provisions … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Commentary, School Choice, Teachers
‘Waiting for Superman’ exposes grim reality that many children face
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) I recently attended a screening of Waiting for Superman, the new documentary about public education by Davis Guggenheim. This is a terribly important movie. Anyone with an interest in education reform should make arrangements to see it soon, bring friends, and pack tissues. Not everyone wants you to see this movie. If you can, I encourage you to watch it, as I did, with a mixed audience of parents, teachers, community members and union leaders. We sat together. We all watched the same screen – but based on the discussion afterward it seems that we each saw a very different movie. The film introduces five children who, on present course and speed, will soon attend an ordinary public school in their neighborhoods. None of these schools has a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Teachers
‘Waiting for Superman’s’ half-truths and heroes can move you to tears
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Waiting for Superman, the Davis Guggenheim documentary about public education, is headed for the theaters with more hype and about as much substance as a B-grade Western. As in the B-grade Western there are villains, heroines, simplistic truths, and a pull at your heartstrings. The plot line of Superman follows five children and their families from New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Silicon Valley as they — like thousands every year — go through school choice lottery programs, hoping to get into the school they want. There’s joy and tears, more of the latter. The movie does what it intends: It emotionally involves the viewers in the struggle of children and their families to find schools that work for them and to avoid some of the most troubled … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Charter Schools, Commentary, Teacher Unions
Perpetual cycle of school reforms
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) It’s hard to say “school” in America without saying “reform” right after it. For more that a half century we’ve had one magic potion after another. The list runs to the horizon and beyond. Child-centered education; open schools; discovery learning; compensatory education; team teaching; new math; new physics; new biology; phonics; math facts; more homework; less homework; bigger high schools; smaller classes; merit pay; magnet schools; direct instruction; computer-assisted instruction; testing and exit exams; no social promotion; vouchers; charter schools; KIPP; Success for All; Accelerated Schools; national standards; No Child Left Behind.. Some are long forgotten, some are still very much in fashion. But it’s not much of a stretch to say that almost everything we knew for sure at some time in the past about how to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Program innovation, Race to the Top
New immigrants, same old confounding issue
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) I’m fortunate to have Peter Schrag subbing for me today as an Educated Guest. Peter is the former editorial page editor and columnist of the Sacramento Bee. He is the author of “Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future” and “California: America’s High Stakes Experiment.” His new book, just out, is “Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America.” By Peter Schrag Guest columnist Last month’s report charging California schools with failing to educate English language learners is hardly the first such indictment. And given all the other crises confronting the schools and the state, it won’t get nearly the official attention it deserves. But in its condemnation of the system for its fumbling, its lack of data, its inconsistency and confusion in pedagogical strategies and its outright … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, English learners
CTA and Quality Education Investment Act: selling the same old snake oil
December 8th, 2010 | 9 Comments
By Arun Ramanathan / commentary ~ EdSource Extra
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Drug companies often hire researchers to evaluate the prescription medicines they’ve designed. Without fail, the studies reveal – surprise! – that the drugs work. Then, when they want the public to pay top dollar for a product, the drug companies dig up wise-looking doctors in lab coats who tout the “research-based” benefits in television commercials. Last week, we learned that the California Teacher’s Association has taken a page from the drug companies’ book. First, they asked a research firm to evaluate the nearly $3 billion education reform program that they helped design, promote, and turn into law, the 2006 Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA). Then, when the researchers discovered that the program “worked,” CTA ran commercials on the radio touting its benefits. Not surprisingly, the reforms included in QEIA are the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Program innovation